theLink

Welcome to the first edition of The Link in 2014, containing the latest news and articles from both Brammer and Buck & Hickman.

In this issue, we focus on how we are further enhancing our capabilities and offerings. As ever, we remain highly focused on delivering maximum cost savings and adding value for our customers; a continued theme in 2014.

Our seventh annual Manufacturing Forum took place in autumn last year at the Concorde Runway Visitor Park in Manchester. We received tremendous feedback on our guest speakers and the content, and we felt it was important to share with you this success and provide all customers with a full update, which can be found on the centre pages.

I trust that 2014 will be a successful year for all of our customers and on behalf of Brammer and Buck & Hickman, I would like to thank you for your continued custom in 2013 and we look forward to servicing your needs and adding value throughout 2014 and beyond.

Foreword

Ian Ritchie, Managing Director, Brammer and Buck & Hickman

Brammer delivers £22 million of cost savings in the food and beverage sectorImproved maintenance spares management and energy efficiency alongside alternative sources of spares supply represent three significant areas of potential production cost savings for the UK food and beverage production industry.

As a key strategic partner to many of the major names in the food and beverage production sector, Brammer has helped to achieve cost savings of more than £22 million over the past few years.

Detailed research into these cost savings revealed that the most significant area was in increased production time, which accounted for more than 30 per cent of the savings achieved.

Second on the list in terms of cost savings achieved was energy efficiency, with more than 15 per cent of verified cost savings, and an area that has the potential to offer even greater savings in the future.

Another successful area was in materials substitution, usually in the form of

finding an alternative source of supply for a component which the client had previously been ordering direct from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).

Peter Malpas, Key Account Director at Brammer, explained: “Responding quickly by sourcing and supplying genuine components has helped a number of companies to avoid costly downtime.

“We have also helped to identify areas of waste and advised on how these can be best addressed to improve a plant’s efficiency, and add further value by obtaining spares direct from specialist manufacturers, rather than through OEMs.”

Issue 1 / 2014

The second intake of Brammer graduates kicked off their programme in October, with 19 graduates placed at a number of locations internationally. In the UK, two first class honours graduates, Stephen Dodd in Business Management & Marketing and Steven Taylor in Business & Management, began their placements at Brammer’s National Distribution Centre in Wolverhampton.

The two-year programme is split into four rotations, giving the graduates an opportunity to sample six months in three different business functions, with the final six months spent working at one of Brammer’s overseas locations.

The pair’s first placement is in the marketing department, where the new UK graduates will be working on a number of key projects, including market research, service proposition development, e-commerce and much more.

“The Brammer graduate programme provides a great opportunity for us to learn about a number of key aspects of business”, says graduate Stephen Dodd.

As part of their induction, the two graduates had the opportunity to attend The Skills Show 2013, where they assisted in showcasing the Brammer Invend™ service to event attendees, including Theo Paphitis, who showed a keen interest.

Success by degrees

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A dedicated control system department is further expanding Brammer’s offering in Ireland, where the company has made an investment in equipment to enable a broad range of customised control panels to be designed and built on-site.

Brammer has already secured contracts from customers in a variety of industries, including the production of a range of control panels for Halliburton, a leading global oil and gas equipment supplier.

The panels control the operation of pumps which help to control the contents of tanks used on vessels for the transportation process from offshore rigs by passing air through the tank interior, as well as managing the filling and emptying of the tanks.

Each of the two panel designs takes around eight to ten hours to construct, and is designed to operate in the uniquely demanding environment of oil and gas extraction.

Brammer digs deep with specialist panel design

Francie Gill, Brammer’s Technical Specialist – Control Panels and Pneumatics, said:

“This is an exciting project for us and confirms the capability of our in-house panel building team to meet the exact specifications of leading global players. The project demands not just precision control but a high degree of robustness given the environment in which the equipment is operating.”

On top of the equipment investment, Brammer has appointed dedicated engineers to service its in-house capabilities to meet customers’ exact requirements.

Graduates Stephen Dodd (far left) and Steven Taylor (far right) with Marketing Assistant Anna Dzido, Invend™ Installation Engineer Gary Pitcock (centre), and Theo Paphitis at The Skills Show 2013.

Brammer’s capability will once again be demonstrated at Hillhead 2014, the international quarrying, construction and recycling show, which will take place at Hillhead Quarry near Buxton in Derbyshire from 24-26 June. At the event, Brammer will sponsor the onsite Hillhead Café and shuttle buses,and demonstrate how it achieves significant cost savings for major players in the sector through initiatives designed to minimise costly downtime and improve production output and efficiency.

Brammer delivers award-winning cost saving initiative for Hanson

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Hanson Building Products was keen to reduce energy consumption at its block manufacturing facility at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, with the company believing that fitting a new IE2 motor to a fan drive would reduce electricity bills.

However, having been called in to review the application, Brammer proposed the installation of a new energy-efficient Siemens IE3 motor, Poly Chain transmission and Siemens inverter.

These new inclusions to the fan drive would allow the motor speed to be reduced by 10 per cent without any compromise on output. Once the system had been installed, however, it was found that a speed reduction of 29 per cent could be achieved without impacting on the required airflow. This delivered a total annual energy saving equal to £23,650, with a payback time below three months.

In addition, the maintenance free nature of

An innovative solution from Brammer has helped one of the UK’s biggest names in construction materials to achieve an annual cost saving of nearly £24,000.

the new drive components has reduced the mechanical stress to the transmission system, and removed the requirements to re-tension the belts every 2,000 hours. Going forward, this will provide additional component and significant engineering cost savings.

This bespoke solution won the Sustainability Category at British Precast’s PRECAST 2013 Awards.

A spokesman for Hanson Building Products added: “Brammer displayed the proactivity and analytical thinking to deliver a far greater cost saving than we originally believed was achievable. We, like all manufacturers, always seek to reduce our energy consumption. With Brammer’s ingenuity and independent expertise, we were recommended and supplied a full range of energy efficient products, which have helped cut our energy consumption considerably.”

Andy Hickin, Regional Key Account

Executive at Brammer, said: “This is one of a number of projects on which Brammer and Siemens have collaborated to deliver drive train optimisation for customers, using the combined expertise of each company to help improve production efficiency.”

High flyers commended at coveted manufacturing awards ceremonyThe Concorde Runway Visitor Park in Manchester was the venue for the prestigious annual Brammer and Buck & Hickman 2013 Manufacturing Forum and Awards event.

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The big topic

The event, now in its seventh year, was hosted by Sasha Twining, a news anchor who has presented high-profile daytime shows for both Sky News and the BBC.

The keynote address was given by Will Butler-Adams, MD of Brompton Bicycle Co., which designs and builds folding bicycles from its UK factory. Presentations were given by representatives from customers including Royal Mint, Siemens, Diageo and EDF.

through the introduction of an optimum drive solution for its polychain belts on the factory’s multi-pack line 5. The process delivered a substantial improvement in production efficiency, reducing energy usage by nearly 150kW each year and cutting carbon dioxide production by more than 700 tonnes annually.

The Royal Mint won the Brammer Reduced Working Capital Through Inventory Management award. Brammer worked with

The awards categories were independently judged by senior editors of UK manufacturing journals, which included The Manufacturer, Works Management, Controls, Drives & Automation and Industrial, Plant & Equipment.

Food and drink manufacturer PepsiCo won the Brammer Improved Production Efficiency award for its collaboration with Brammer at the company’s plant in Skelmersdale, Lancashire. PepsiCo ran an initiative to cut energy usage

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1 The Concorde Runway Visitor Park in Manchester provided the perfect backdrop for the event.

2 Will Butler-Adams, MD of Brompton Bicycle Co. delivering the keynote address.

3 Siemens Paul Duncombe and Emma Seddon from Siemens with Ian Ritchie.

4 Pepsico Davina Adams, UK Operations/Capital Purchasing Manager of Pepsico, receives the Improved Production Efficiency Award from Ian Ritchie.

5 RWE npower Lesley Farrow (right) and James Earley of RWE npower receiving the Reduced Total Acquisition Costs Award from Ian Ritchie.

6 Royal Mint Stuart Mitchell and Katherine Tobin of The Royal Mint receive the Reduced Working Capital Through Inventory Management Award from Ian Ritchie.

7 Royal Mail Jason Soden receiving the Award for Improved Production Efficiency from Ian Ritchie.

tools and consumables supply chain for all its UK companies. The decision to award Buck & Hickman the contract to supply products for all UK operations has resulted in cost savings equal to 8.5 per cent in 2013 and 7 per cent in 2012. Siemens now purchases 94 per cent of its 42,395 line items from 300 suppliers, instead of 692 with positive implications for driving down spend. By working as a partnership, Buck & Hickman has been able to deliver significant price reduction, cuts in consumption and cost saving projects.

Ian Ritchie, Managing Director of Brammer and Buck & Hickman, said: “2013 marked the seventh year of the Manufacturing Forum and Awards. As always, it was attended by representatives from the UK’s leading manufacturers, who took the opportunity to share best practice with their industry peers.

“The Awards recognise those who have achieved outstanding results. It is wonderful to see so many companies of all sizes and in a broad range of sectors continuing to demonstrate best practice.

“Our congratulations go out to all the winners and highly commended entries.”

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the world’s largest glove manufacturer, Ansell, to develop a new inventory process for glove selection for The Royal Mint, which unlocked savings of an estimated £20,000 by streamlining the number of types of safety gloves needed.

The Reduced Acquisition Costs award was won by UK National Grid electricity provider Lynemouth Power. Brammer worked with the coal and biomass fire-powered station to provide a solution in supplying a reliable boiler drain valve. Brammer’s Insite™ team worked with Lynemouth Power’s engineering team and associates from Valve Technologies to replace the station’s existing hand-wheel operated valve with a lever-operated ball valve, featuring a matched ball and treated with hard-wearing Rocket Applied Metal (RAM). The move saved Lynemouth Power Station nearly £58,000 in acquisition costs, and drastically reduced the number of back-up valves from 144 to 72. This led to a potential overall saving of £168,000 per valve failure, reducing the number of working hours needed by 168.3 operator hours each year, in addition to delivering better reliability, reduced maintenance and easier operation.

British postal service Royal Mail received the Buck & Hickman Improved Production

Efficiency award for a project identifying a footwear manufacturer and product that would deliver the necessary quality needed for employees on site. The new footwear lasts three times longer than the previous products, without a significant cost increase. Members of staff who wore the shoes described them as “the perfect fit”, and “significantly better than their predecessors”.

Buck & Hickman’s Reduced Total Acquisition Costs award went to RWE npower. Buck & Hickman delivered a major cost saving initiative to RWE npower which allowed the company to save both time and money on every order placed. Previously, the electricity and gas supply generation company had been sending daily orders by email or phone, with a typical daily value of around £1,500, more often than not requiring next day delivery. Buck & Hickman developed an electronic catalogue, containing 48,000 items regularly purchased by RWE npower. The systems installation has eradicated the laborious task of manual ordering, in turn saving time, and more significantly, around £60 per order.

Siemens was the recipient of the Supplier Relationship Award for consolidating its PPE,

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As well as contributing to reducing Worcester’s carbon footprint, the project has helped reduce noise levels and improve health and safety on the production lines. The implementation of cordless tools also reduces the number of air lines, which previously acted as a hazard for operators.

John Jones, Account Manager at Buck & Hickman, explains: “Along with the need for new assembly tools, the specific requirement from Worcester was to help them to reduce their carbon footprint.

“We trialled a number of alternatives, but found that electric and cordless tools have lower carbon emissions than air-powered tools, which had been the main tool of choice on site.

“We presented our findings to Worcester, along with a cost-saving projection for using electric tools over air-powered alternatives and, based upon our findings, we won the contract to introduce electric and cordless power tools to the factory.”

Buck & Hickman has supplied the site with around 100 electric and cordless screwdrivers, replacing the previous air-powered tools used to make the high efficiency gas-fired combination boilers.

The new tools have been well received by operatives and the factory has now almost completely replaced air-powered tools with electrical and cordless ones in line with its drive towards lean manufacturing.

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Buck & Hickman sponsors Apprentice of the Year at Tata Steel

Power tool project saves energy for Worcester, Bosch Group

For the second successive year, Buck & Hickman has sponsored the annual Apprentice of the Year at three Tata Steel sites nationally, celebrating the achievements of apprentices in the first of their four years.

Buck & Hickman has lent a helping hand to one of its biggest customers, replacing air-powered screwdrivers with cordless and implementing the use of power tools to improve energy and efficiency and reduce cost at its Worcester HQ.

Buck & Hickman specifically sponsors the Overall Outstanding Apprentice of the Year, an award for which the prize includes a trophy, a certificate signed by Ian Ritchie and £100 of Roebuck hand tool vouchers.

Two Buck & Hickman Account Development Managers recently attended events at Port Talbot and Stocksbridge, presenting awards to mechanical and electrical apprentices.

At Tata Steel’s Stocksbridge facility, the guest of honour was the Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP.

Meanwhile, at Port Talbot, Ian Ware was presented his award for Best Electrical Apprentice, by Buck & Hickman Account Development Manager Tony Davies.

Tony Davies said: “It was an honour, and privilege to attend the apprentice awards. It was heart-warming to see the pride of both the apprentices and their families at their achievements.”

Anthony Davies of Buck & Hickman (left) presents the Best Year One Apprentice Award at Port Talbot to Ian Ware

The Skills Show is a key part of the World Skills UK nationwide campaign to raise the public profile, awareness and recognition of vocational skills and careers.

The three-day event gave visitors to the stand a preview of the Brammer Invend™ vehicle, displaying the unique vending service which, for the first time, makes the benefits of industrial vending available to companies of all sizes.

Attendees were able to use the machines to ‘free vend’ promotional giveaways, while also finding out more about the value the Invend™ service can offer to its customers. Invend™ provides unrivalled visibility and control of industrial consumables, including a full usage report by employee and cost centre, which provides key information concerning who is using what, where and when.

The Buck & Hickman stand was also visited by retail magnate and Dragon’s Den regular Theo Paphitis.

Celebrity builder Tommy Walsh also shared an insight into his working life, successes and how he got to where he is today, on the Buck & Hickman sponsored Built Environment Spotlight stage, giving practical tips and advice to those who aspire to follow in his footsteps.

This investment demonstrates the company’s commitment to offering customers unrivalled access to local support and advice to help them save money, while providing the most comprehensive range of MRO spares, tools and PPE.

Products not held on site are supplied through the company’s National Distribution Centre, on a just-in-time basis, helping to cut lead times by delivering direct to a customer as soon as they require the product.

Two of Buck & Hickman’s biggest customers at Swansea are Schaeffler and Morganite, who benefit from Buck & Hickman’s Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) service, with

product usage monitored by the company and stock levels replenished as needed.

Andrew Couch, Branch Manager at Swansea, said:

“Our move here has been swift; Brammer and Buck & Hickman staff work together like a well-oiled machine. It’s also been well-received by customers who appreciate the convenience of a co-located branch, and having both teams on site together opens up new opportunities to add value for new and existing customers alike.”

Buck & Hickman visited by ‘Dragon’ and Ground Force star at 2013 Skills Show

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For the second successive year Buck & Hickman has supported The Skills Show, aimed at raising awareness among young people of the opportunities within further vocational education, apprenticeships and employer training.

Gary Pitcock, Invend™ Installation Engineer, showing Theo Paphitis around the Invend™ vehicle at The Skills Show 2013

Branch focus: Swansea

Buck & Hickman Branch Manager, Andrew Couch (second left) with the team at the Swansea branch

Buck & Hickman has joined forces with Brammer in Swansea following a move to a new joint branch at the Ashmont Business Park.

Buck & Hickman launches Mobile Centre of Excellence

theLink

Welcome to the first edition of The Link in 2014, bringing you the very latest news from Buck & Hickman and Brammer.

At Buck & Hickman, we remain fully committed to optimising our customers’ production efficiency. In this issue, read how we helped to reduce an international boiler manufacturer’s carbon footprint by recommending a new range of cordless tools, delivering major cost savings too.

We focus on the engineers of the future through our sponsorship of the Tata Steel Apprentice of the Year, and also take a look at our Swansea branch, which is delivering reduced total acquisition costs and working capital for local customers following its move to new, co-located premises.

I trust that 2014 will be a successful year for all of our customers and on behalf of Buck & Hickman and Brammer, I would like to thank you for your continued custom in 2013 and we look forward to servicing your needs and adding value to your business throughout 2014 and beyond.

Foreword

The newsletter from the tools, maintenance and health & safety specialists

Buck & Hickman has launched its innovative Mobile Centre of Excellence, designed to showcase the company’s unique product and service offering.

Issue 1 / 2014

In the coming months, the Mobile Centre will tour many key customer facilities, as well as Buck & Hickman’s own nationwide network of Sales and Service Centres, to demonstrate the company’s capabilities.

The Mobile Centre features innovative, hands-on product displays and video demonstrations from many of Buck & Hickman’s world-class supply partners, including Stanley, Irwin, Lubetech, 3M, Honeywell and Kimberley-Clark. It also contains interactive demonstration rigs, exhibiting technological innovation and Buck & Hickman’s specialist expertise within a number of key product and application areas.

Ian Ritchie, Managing Director of Buck & Hickman, commented: “Drawing on the successful Brammer Mobile Centre of Excellence model, the Buck & Hickman Mobile Centre of Excellence is our way of demonstrating the technical support and

expertise, product innovation and value-adding services that we deliver to our cust- omers in and across multiple industry sectors.

“We felt that taking our capabilities directly to our customers in a custom-built Mobile Centre of Excellence was the most effective means of showcasing our complete offering, aiming to help our customers significantly reduce their total acquisition costs and working capital while also improving production efficiency.

“Throughout 2014, the Mobile Centre of Excellence will be touring locations across the UK. We look forward to welcoming anyone who wishes to discover more about the products, services and support Buck & Hickman can offer.”

If you are interested to know more or want to request a visit, please contact your local branch, sales representative or account manager.

Ian Ritchie, Managing Director, Brammer and Buck & Hickman